This guide walks you through the game and describes how to deduce the identities and fates of everyone (except for the Bargain chapter) on board as you go along.
Introduction
Return of the Obra Dinn is a detective game, and it is possible to deduce the identities and fates of all characters without the guesswork, as this guide will prove.
However, as the game says in the tutorial phase, “decisive information is rare” and “you will have to make assumptions using partial information”, meaning that you will just have to go with the most likely scenario at some points, and this can sometimes be quite sketchy IMO. (You can also take this as the game implicitly telling you that the most likely answer will be the correct answer, as opposed to the game trying to mislead you to make incorrect inferences and associations via some exotic character trope or strange plot twist.)
You will also need some background knowledge of the real world that you may not have, particularly (19th century) world culture and geography, hint hint.
I personally can’t recognize accents and won’t be using them as clues. There will be different spoken languages as well, and it is not necessary to know what the language is, merely what it says (which the game will tell you via subtitles). Of course, knowing accents and languages can nevertheless push you in the right direction.
To make the most of the game experience (as you will never be able to experience it a second time once you know the story), you should attempt to extract info from each scene as best as you can, before relying on this guide. This guide is simply to prevent frustration when things get extremely difficult.
As mentioned in the guide description, I intend to cover all chapters of the game, in rough order of encounter. The one exception is VIII (Bargain), as that is an endgame reward for your private viewing pleasure.
Due to this design choice, this guide is meant to be read from beginning to end, and may not make sense if you skip parts. The known facts and desired deductions contain increasingly more and larger spoilers as we progress, which will make my text convoluted if I try to keep it spoiler-free, so THERE WILL BE UNMARKED SPOILERS.
As we go through each part, I will address any immediately obvious details of interest and will not spoil what I think are readily accessible facts. Then I will note any new deductions that you can make with the information you have (an outright solution to an identity/fate, or at least a good narrowing down of plausible options). Sometimes a soul’s identity is deduced much earlier than its death, and sometimes much later. The fates are usually much more obvious, but not always, and may also depend on knowing identities. Not everything I mention will be critically important, but may just be natural or fun observations.
The information may thus appear very disorganized, but that is just how the game progresses. I will basically spoil anything that I think is less than obvious for the moment. But I may unspoiled it later on as it becomes a heavily established and used fact (e.g. who the captain or other major characters are).
This guide assumes you know the UI and basic flow of the game (or that you will learn it in time without extra help needed), and will NOT go through gameplay basics (e.g. how to navigate the book or revisit scenes) in depth.
The in-game book gives you a bit more information than might be fair, such as giving deduction ratings, and unblurring faces as soon as it thinks you have enough information. Basically the game’s own comments about the deduction process, instead of a purely factual recount. I will label these hints as “META”, and will do my best to not rely on them.
On the other hand, I find factual information to be fair game, and will utilize them a lot – using the game to recognize faces/bodies instead of doing it manually; letting the book determine who and how many people appear in a scene; etc.
Terminology and notation that I will use:
- For quick reference, I will use “[chapter numeral].[part number]” to reference a chapter part. e.g. “VII.8” refers to chapter VII (The Doom), part 8.
- To refer to the soul that died in a chapter part, I will add a 👤 in front of the chapter part reference. e.g. “👤VII.8” refers to the soul that died in The Doom, part 8.
- To refer to a soul that disappeared at the end of a chapter, I will use “👤[chapter numeral].D
- “, e.g. “👤VII.D2” refers to the second person that disappeared in The Doom (which is the guy looking over another guy’s shoulder on the left side of the “Under Way” sketch).
- To avoid too many technical references as above, I might give some people nicknames, e.g. “Beanie Man”. In general, I will try to refer to people in a spoiler-free way, but especially for the top brass, I may eventually refer to them more directly.
Chapter X – The End
Off the bat, I highly recommend you peruse the beginning of the book as well as the glossary at the end: It provides extremely useful information of not just the crew but also the background knowledge needed to know what’s going on in scenes.
This guide starts once you have received the book and pocketwatch and viewed the first memory scene.
The end of the story, but the start of the game, woo!
“CAPTAIN! OPEN THE DOOR!!”
[ID] Captain
- There is only one captain of the ship (obviously, if the crew manifest hasn’t told you already), and someone refers to him in this scene. Figure out who’s referring to who from the audio log, and ID the captain.
- Tip: You can review an audio log of the convo in the book, and the X before a line means the one who was killed spoke it.
- Extra hint 1: There is a 2v1 in the scene, and the convo suggests who is ganging up on who.
- Extra hint 2: Refer to the ship schematics in the book to learn what room the shooter is emerging from.
[FATE] 👤X.1
- Pretty obvious, this one. The guy was shot. With a pistol. By whom?
Other details:
- The book says that apart from the one who died, there are 3 other souls in the memory, so 4 people in total. 3 of them are obvious. Can you find the last one?
- The one who died be dressed kinda fancy, and in fact from the sketch in the book, he even has the same kind of tricorne hat as the captain, while no one else does. Not just any bloke is allowed to wear drip like that. This should clue you in that people’s attire imply something about their status.
- We can take note of this suspicious mention of shells for now. Sounds like a plot device.
You can’t expect to be able to ID everyone in the first scene, so do what you can and move on. This will apply for all scenes as well. We can and will revisit past deaths when it becomes relevant.
When you exit the memory and back to the real world, the door in front of you would have opened into a room, with two more corpses inside. Select the one closest to where you are for the next scene.
META: After the book tells you that a face will become unblurred once you have enough info to ID them, if you peruse the sketches in the book, you may notice that there are actually more unblurred faces.
- One of the faces is the guy holding the ship’s steering wheel. Maybe it’s just happenstance that he placed his hand on the wheel just for that scene. But the book thinks otherwise.
- The other unblurred face is not so much a face, but it is the signature at the lower left of the “Justice at Sea” sketch. Makes sense that the artist of the sketch had to be on board the ship in order to sketch the scene accurately, ya? So they are one of the people in the crew’s manifest. Now whose initials happen to be “E.S.”…?
[FATE] 👤X.2 = Beanie Man
- This scene’s a bit more messy than the last one, but looking at the scuffle from different angles, you can see that his throat was slashed with a knife by someone we know.
Other details:
- The extra guy from the last scene is still around, and a bit more visible this time.
[FATE] 👤X.3 = Bald Tarzan
- He was struck by a stick to the bald head. The closest thing in the book to death by blunt weapon would be “clubbed”. Attacker is obvious.
- The game also accepts a slightly different fate, which comes from how the stick has a pointy end.
Other details:
- The captain has a knife sticking out of the right side of his abdomen.
- Another door has opened, revealing a small room where a woman is lying in some kind of bed or container.
Something to note by this point is that the book does not count dead appearances as actual appearances in memory. Which means the woman is dead. But then, everyone is dead by this point, so no surprise. (Unless…?)
A new door has opened, to where the woman laid, and now holds a skeleton. Between the captain’s cabin and the woman’s room is an extra small corridor with another skeleton on the floor, which we will view next.
Alas, the captain goes down with the ship. (Though this saying only came at least decades after the events of the Obra Dinn, according to the internet.)
[FATE] Captain
- In the audio record, you hear a c’ock, a rasp of metal, and finally a gunshot. The graphics are messy but you can just barely see the captain pointing a pistol at his own chest.
If you try to select that the captain was shot with a gun, the game doesn’t allow you to select the captain as the attacker. You must instead select the option that the captain committed suicide.
What’s more important to our job as insurance inspector is what the captain said before he died.
[ID] Abigail
- In the scene, who was the captain calling “Abigail”? Surely not the dead men in the other room. 😉
- Make sure there’s exactly one person named “Abigail” in the crew manifest.
[ID] Abigail’s brother
- The captain said he shot Abigail’s brother. Now, maybe he’s referring to some event earlier in the story that we haven’t seen yet, but we nonetheless do have one confirmed case…
- To confirm our theory, check the names of the people involved (and everyone else’s names while we’re at it) to see if we can conclude any familial relations.
Only one corpse left unvisited. Let’s view it to progress to the next chapter.
Chapter VII – The Doom (pt.8-5)
Take a good look around, cos there are quite a few people and things happening, which signals the start of the real game. Looks like the ship is being attacked by a tewwifwying tentacwle mowonster òωó.
The game also gets a bit more annoying here because immediately after viewing the scene and then closing the book, you’re prevented from viewing the book or any of the characters in the scene for a while. On closing the book, you have to identify the corpse in the scene that the game wants you to identify, click on it which returns you to the present world, and look at and follow the wisp until it spawns the next corpse. Once the new corpse appears, you’re then free to go back to the old scene.
[FATE] Abigail
- She’s being hit on the head by some rigging (the general stuff that supports the sails). There are two possible ways to record this: She was crushed, or she had a death by blunt object just like in X.3.
- Personal note: Given how she died, I’m surprised her face isn’t disfigured in the scenes from Chapter X.
You should get your first confirmation for a set of 3 fates if you got things right so far.
[ID] Martin
- Look for anyone named Martin in the crew manifest.
- Note Martin’s quality (i.e. rank), and remember that it’s one of the highest on the ship. Look around the scene for people who look appropriately spiffy. Tip: It may be easier to check the book for who appeared in the memory, than to look around in the scene itself.
- Alternative 1: Look more closely at everyone’s attires in the sketch. We know what the Captain and First Mate look like, and there are the Second to Fourth Mates left to identify. There are some other fancy hats on deck, but surely the Mates have to be distinguished from the rest due to their leadership position. Are there 3 other people in the sketch whose attires look similar enough to each other as well as the captain’s and first mate’s?
- Alternative 2: There are perhaps only 3 people in this scene who are dressed fittingly. Which of them look free enough to be paying attention to Abigail?
- One of them is much closer to Abigail than the other two. How likely is it that this guy just happens to be near her dodging tentacles and rigging, while some other guy is ignoring him and shouting to Abigail to come to him from across the deck?
- As will be routine, if you’re not confident in an answer then we can always wait for further information down the line.
- META: If nothing else, the book tells you whose faces are unblurred.
[ID] The two women
- It’s bad luck to have women on board, sir, or so the old superstition goes. Probably because the sailors will get distracted like the sea dogs they are.
Anyway, my point is: Women are rare, at least certainly in this case, so look at the crew manifest and the sketches for any feminine names and faces respectively. - The foreign names might be problematic, but we can recognise at least 3 female names in the list: Abigail (whom we know), Emily Jackson, and Miss Jane Bird. For the faces, we see at least 4 (Abigail, the two women in the scene, and the Formosan woman), and the rest of the crew are mostly bearded men. (Probably no sweet Polly Olivers here.) Remember that the game takes place in an era where women (and respectively men) are socially/culturally expected to look and act womanly (resp. manly), and they would rather wear a wig than go bald in public.
- So we can hazard a guess that the two women are indeed Jane and Emily. The question is, which is which? Jane’s honorific sticks out like a sore thumb in the manifest: “Miss” means the lady is unmarried. Could there be some difference between married and unmarried women that would help us differentiate the two women in the scene?
- One of the women is wearing a wedding ring. Personal note: I didn’t notice that in my first playthrough, and managed to guess correctly by judging the womens’ ages instead.
[FATE] 👤VII.7 = Tattoo Man
- He’s being gruesomely ripped apart in the air. There’s an option in the book called “Torn Apart”, which is quite apt.
Other details:
- Tattoo Man has a pretty unique appearance. That could provide a lot of guidance right now, but perhaps not enough to ID him with confidence (unless you are intensely familiar with the various cultures of the 19th century), so we can wait for more details.
- META: The book has unblurred Tattoo Man’s face, so the game expects you to be able to identify Tattoo Man now.
- In the distance, we see the scawy sea monster capsizing a rowboat, with 3 unidentifiable people being tossed into the air.
Note: A “bitt” is a (wooden) post used to secure ropes to, according to my understanding. Doesn’t really matter here.
[FATE] 👤VII.6 = Explodey Boy
- He exploded.
Other details:
- Explodey Boy seems to have a friend (whom I will aptly call Explodey Boy’s Friend) who is handling his rope. Both of them look very similar in the sketch, and are even physically close to each other there. We can fairly conclude that they are in very similar qualities, if not the same one.
- We see the guy (who I shall call Police Man) with the tall hat with a peak/visor (that’s what that thing in front of a cap that shades your eyes from sunlight is called) emerge from below deck with a bunch of muskets. Given that he’s fancy-looking and that you probably need keys to access the guns storage, maybe it’s related to his role.
After this memory, the way below deck (to the gun deck, to be specific) is opened. Head down to find a corpse crushed underneath a cannon.
[FATE] 👤VII.5
- He be smushed by a cannon.
Other details:
- Explodey Boy and his friend can be seen making their way up the stairs, carrying some satchels.
Chapter VII – The Doom (pt.4-1 + disappearances)
[FATE] 👤VII.4a = Top Hat
- He got blasted… well, “shot”, by a cannon. Saying that he exploded also works.
👤VII.4b is a real mystery. We can’t find him anywhere in the scene, but the book says he died in this exact scene, in some way. Maybe the chronologically preceding scene will have some clues.
[FATE] 👤VII.3
- He is crushed between a cannon and the hull of the ship. [TO VERIFY:] Unfortunately, “crushed by a loose cannon” isn’t accepted by the game; you have to select “crushed by a terrible beast” instead.
[FATE] 👤VII.4b
- We see him trying to help Top Hat out of his bind, and unfortunately this is the best info we are going to get. 👤VII.4b is in the line of fire of the cannon, so we can reasonably assume he got blasted as well, in his case to a place where we can’t see.
- Or, given that tentacles are reaching in, maybe one of them grabbed him and pulled him out before the cannon fired. The answer is genuinely ambiguous and the game accepts any of these alternatives.
Other details:
- Someone was giving orders in this memory, and there is only one officer-like person present. So perhaps that officer is generally in charge of the cannons… or maybe they’re substituting in for the actual officer which may have died earlier. Nothing definitive.
There are a few more corpses unlocked in the main world by this point. To progress to VII.2, go to the bow (the front of the ship, the direction where you came from but further ahead), on the gun deck level.
[ID] 👤VII.2 = E.S.
- Surprise, the artist of the sketches is himself on board the ship! Well, that makes sense if they were present to sketch the “Justice at Sea” sketch. As for ID’ing him, just look for someone with those initials in the manifest. And maybe their quality will align too.
[FATE] E.S.
- Obvious, this one. He died from constipation of course.
If you go back into the ship, there are plenty of important details to take note of:
- As you’ll immediately discover upon closing the book, the top deck is accessible in this memory.
- At the furthest part of the gun deck, we see two characters we’ve met before. One is carrying food for the other, who is a known high-ranking officer. It is a certain quality’s duty to perform tasks like that – check the glossary. [ID]
- The person at the front is dressed similarly and was preparing food as well, which tells you their quality.
- Two men are having a drink on the gun deck. Note the hammocks behind them, which are probably theirs respectively. (If they weren’t, then the men are awkwardly away from their own hammocks to disturb the space of other people: Notice how all the other cubicles have their own tables, which are secured to the side hull.) You can see the tag on one of the hammocks. Guess what that number refers to. [ID]
- Aside from the two drinking men, the hammocks present are labelled: X, 36 (with a scimitar), 43, 44, 45, 48, 49, 56, 57.
A rather simple scene, with a very interesting and informative convo.
[ID] 👤VII.1
- He is called a Dane, i.e. a person from Denmark. Check the manifest.
[ID] The bloody Dane’s attacker
- He accused the Dane of killing his brother. Check the manifest for anyone who is family-related.
- Given the convo, we know at least one brother (our attacker) is alive and at least one is dead. Determining which brother the attacker is depends on whether you’ve figured something out earlier. If not, don’t worry, I’ll tell you to revisit this later.
[FATE] 👤VII.1
- Took a club to the jaw.
This is where the bookmark feature of the book becomes particularly useful.
[FATE] 👤VII.D1
- Last seen in VII.6, falling overboard on the side opposite the explosion.
[FATE]x3 👤VII.D2, 👤VII.D3, 👤VII.D4
- In VII.1, we just saw these people in the process of leaving by boat.
- In VII.7, we saw what happened to the boat. Even the book (and bookmarks) tells us that these people were there, even though we can’t find them in the scene. What type of death you decide to report is up to you; the game accepts quite a few options.
[FATE] 👤VII.D5
- Last seen in VII.8, climbing the rigging on the port (left) side, but with a tentacle wrapping around him. What happens next is anyone’s guess; choose whichever plausible fate you want.
[FATE] 👤VII.D6
- Last seen in VII.8, he is being hoisted into the air by a tentacle, right above the ship’s wheel. The book tells us we aren’t going to see him after this, so take a guess.
[FATE] 👤VII.D7
- Last seen in VII.8, driving a stick into a tentacle on the port side. Given that this is the last we’ll see of him, anything could’ve happened to him…
Onward to the next chapter. To the gun deck again, we walk past the cannons to find a corridor with a bunch of rooms. The very first room on the left has some suspicious pools and a knife on the floor leading underneath it. Inside the room – the midshipmen cabin – is our next corpse.
Chapter IX – Escape
This is one of the most perplexing chapters imo, from a gameplay perspective. There are two storylines happening in parallel, numerous people all interacting with each other, and you barely know any of their identities. Hopefully it’ll all make more sense once we see all the scenes in this chapter and recount it in proper chronological order.
Not that many people alive (in fact it’s just the mutiny crew, which makes sense considering this is the final part before Chapter X), but quite a few dead bodies. Quite a confusing scene with too many possibilities, but we take some preliminary notes.
Language: “Och no!” is Scottish.
👤IX.6 bled out, but there’s no such option in the book. We have to discover and report what caused his bleeding in the first place, and it’s not clear what it is from this scene alone.
Pete:
- Do a routine check on the manifest as to who may be called Pete. Pete is a diminutive form of Peter. There are 3 options that fit, but we ruled out 2 already, in VII.1.
- 👤IX.6… remember him? We saw him in VII.6. He’s Explodey Boy’s friend. Given Pete’s quality, this tells us that 👤IX.6, Explodey Boy, and Pete are all the same quality.
- 👤IX.6 says he tried to pull Pete back to save him. This could refer to the events of VII.6, or perhaps Pete is the third midshipman that did not appear in VII.6, and had a separate event happen to him that (also?) involved pulling to save. What are the chances? If we’re not convinced of any one possibility, then let’s see what the rest of the chapter has first.
- META: Explodey Boy’s face is unblurred.
[ID] Brennan (I struggled with this a lot on my first playthrough)
- On first consideration, First Mate may be referring to any one of the bodies (dead or alive) outside the room, considering that he’s holed up in the room and may not know who’s alive outside or not.
However, given that First Mate knows that there has been a conflict (that harmed 👤IX.6), but feels safe enough to call out anyway (instead of preparing to defend himself), that must mean he knows that the conflict is over and Brennan is alive. - Among the people who are alive, it is most logical to call for help from the nearest person, rather than someone further above deck and whom you don’t know whether they followed you in or not.
- Finally, a certain someone is cupping their ear, to hear the orders better.
- Do a routine check on the manifest as to who may be called Brennan.
- META: Beanie Man’s face is unblurred.
[FATE] 👤IX.5
- Clubbed by Beanie Man.
Other details:
- 👤IX.6 has a knife sticking out of his back. But who put it there?
An interesting convo happened in this scene. Unfortunately, it’s a bit difficult to make out who said what imo.
[FATE] 👤IX.4 = Police Man
- Shot by 👤IX.5.
Interesting things are happening above deck. A group of people are on a boat, that is gone in IX.4.
[FATE] 👤IX.3
- Shot by someone we know.
[FATE] 👤IX.6
- Check below deck to see who knifed 👤IX.6.
[ID] Paul
- Paul is called out to by a woman, so we can tell whose side he’s on.
- Furthermore, Paul needs to “look out” for something, so he’s in some danger.
- Routine check for Paul on the manifest.
[FATE] 👤IX.2
- Shot by 👤IX.3.
Other details:
- Check below deck to see how the kerfuffle started.
Language: “Verdammt!” is German.
[ID] 👤IX.1
- He asks for “his Frenchman”, and another speaker refers to his Frenchman as his mate. Check the manifest for a mate who is also French, and 👤IX.1 will be the guy’s boss.
[FATE] 👤IX.1
- He bled out. If you look closely, it’s because his entire left arm was torn off.
- While you can guess what happened to him, it is further confirmed in VII.8.
[ID] Frenchman
- Given that 👤IX.1 is fresh from battle, it sounds like he was fighting along with his Frenchman. There’s a certain someone who was physically close to 👤IX.1 during this time.
- To support this theory, that someone is wearing a stereotypical striped sailor shirt, and in fact that is their most defining visual trait among the whole crew. If you Google “striped sailor shirt”, you’ll learn that it’s actually called a Breton shirt / marinière, and it’s French.
[FATE] Frenchman
- Torn apart, as reported.
Other details:
- First Mate opens the way to his cabin.
- 👤IX.6 opens the way to the orlop deck.
[ID] Pete
- Now that we have reviewed the whole chapter, we know that this chapter starts more or less right after VII. And so, the missing midshipman in VII must have died or disappeared before VII.
- Given that, it makes more sense for 👤IX.6 to be reminiscing about his last seen buddy, rather than someone earlier.
These are the people that left on the rowboat in IX.2. We don’t know what happened to them out there.
There are a few options from here. The other options are in the orlop deck one level down, but we will first go to the newly unlocked First Mate’s cabin (first on the right when exiting the officer’s mess (venue of IX.1) on the gun deck). There are some remains hanging outside the window there.
Chapter III – Murder
This is a chapter that chronologically happens a fair bit earlier than everything else we’ve seen so far. Consequently, a lot more people are alive, which means more people we don’t know will be up and about doing things. All the same, this chapter could have some defining moments for some characters.
What’s happening here? Some skulduggery?
👤III.3 is unfortunately a character we’re seeing for the first time, and we have no clue who he is.
He is shot by another someone that we’re also only seeing for the first time.
We can take notes on who’s doing what here, but there’s too little information to do anything productive for now.
- Tip: Examine 👤III.3 for any distinguishing features. Given that this guy looks to be one of the working-class grunts, we might need that info later to distinguish him from the rest.
Now this scene is tasty. It’s the “Justice at Sea” sketch! Take a good long time absorbing everyone in this scene.
Language: One of the Chinese languages. I’m told it’s Hokkien (a.k.a. Taiwanese, which is what Formosa is called in the present day). It’s pretty dang easy to tell who’s saying it, and thus what the language is.
[ID] 👤III.2
- As the dialog shows, he’s Hok-Seng Lau.
[FATE] 👤III.2
- As the dialog shows, he’s been executed. But there’s no such option in the book. He’s specifically been shot by a gun. And even more specifically, out of the 4 muskets aimed at him, only 1 hit their mark. (Why even have muskets when you have that level of stormtrooper aim.) You know the identity of the shooter.
[ID] Mr Wolff
- You know the drill when a name is dropped by now: Look for a “Wolff” in the manifest.
- Wolff in the dialog is commanding the firing line. Look for someone in the scene who is acting that out.
Simple and straightforward scene, mostly. Very few people.
[ID] Nichols
- Nichols is referred to by name, and acknowledges it. Check the crew manifest for the name and assign it to him. Simple.
[ID] 👤III.1
- III.2 is the trial about his murder, and he is named in full there.
- His accent and use of “signor” provides further confirmation that it is him.
[FATE] 👤III.1
- This is tricky, for once. The attacker is Nichols of course, but how did 👤III.1 die? It looks like he took a fist to the chest, but no way a strike like that kills in one hit (unless Nichols has extreme superhuman strength and fractures the ribs which punctures the lungs and/or heart, or something), so there must be a weapon involved. A weapon small enough to be concealed in a hand.
Other details:
- Shiny shell in the treasure box in the room! Now that I mention it, haven’t we noted something about shells before?
- Hok-Seng Lau is on the floor, decidedly not dead as his actual death is in the next scene. There is a bloodied club near him, suggesting what happened.
[ID] 4th Mate
- The First to Third Mates have been identified at this point, so one more Mate remains. If you kept your eyes peeled on the sketches, you can pinpoint who that is.
III.3 revisited:
[FATE] 👤III.3
- Nichols is the attacker here, so just fill it in.
III.2 revisited:
[ID] 2nd Mate Steward
- Notice the physical relationship between Third Mate and his steward. There is a similar relationship between Second Mate Nichols and another person dressed like a steward, who is in fact whispering something to Nichols.
[ID] 4th Mate Steward
- Similar to the above.
That’s this chapter done. We move down to the orlop deck next. Down the stairs, on the left is a huge pool of what is probably blood, and on the right is a small but suspicious trail of what is probably blood again, leading behind the purser’s office. Head left to the center of the deck, where there is an animal skull mounted on the wall, with flies around it. (Which helps you notice it and that you can in fact use the pocket watch on it, but dang the crew didn’t clean it properly.)
Chapter II – A Bitter Cold
I like this chapter, because it gives a lot of information without much added confusion. That’s why I wanted to do this first.
Moooooooooo 🐄🐮
No one died this scene (for once!), but there are plenty of interesting things going on.
[ID] Charlie
- Let’s address the main action first: From the audio log, it sounds like someone is instructing other people on how to slaughter the cow. Upon seeing the slaughter, someone (whom we can identify in the scene) got sick and threw up. That person was called Charlie and was teased as having never been on a farm. As usual, look for anyone in the manifest who could be called “Charlie”.
- To further confirm our theory, consider the rest of the people present who are slaughtering the cow. We know 2 of them from before. These 3 people together coincidentally have the same quality, and are placed in a group in the sketch, so it does make sense that they do the same activities together. Furthermore, Charlie is evidently a nickname, indicating that they are all friendly with each other.
[ID] The last friendo of the three bois
- By process of elimination.
[ID] Cow slaughter instructor
- 4 people slaughtering the cow, and 1 is out of place. He is holding a knife that is embedded in the cow’s throat, so comparing with the audio log, this outright confirms that he is indeed the instructor.
- This is the navy. Who on board the ship would have expertise in slaughtering a cow? Check the qualities in the manifest. While different qualities may have cow slaughtering under their general repertoire of skills, one quality stands out as being useless otherwise. Furthermore, recall that this chapter is near the beginning of the story, so it’s unlikely that the specialist is incapacitated and has to be substituted in.
Other details:
- The audio log starts with someone who seems to be instructing other people on what to do with a dead body. In the scene, there seems to be only one person who would fit the bill, though he doesn’t look that officer-like.
- Right next to the exit door is a wide open door that seems to lead to darkness, but we can venture a peek inside anyway. The deck plan tells us that this is the surgery room, which suggests what happened. In the room, we see a man that we’ve never seen before, rubbing what is probably a bed. It’s perhaps too early to jump to conclusions, but at least one person present has to be a doctor.
A lascar is an Indian sailor.
Laudanum is a tincture (extract dissolved in ethanol) of opium, historically used as a painkiller and cough suppressant.
[FATE] 👤II.2
- Quite evidently, the laudanum did not work.
[ID] The medical reporter
- In the audio log, someone is consulting someone else about the state of 👤II.2. In the scene, we see it’s Third Mate talking to the strange man in the previous scene. Given how one of them looks like they’re just visiting and the other looks far more in a posture to be examining the patient, we can conclude who is the one giving the medical report.
- Obviously, the medical reporter has to have some specialty in medicine. As the book’s glossary tells you (if you haven’t already inferred it from other places), a “surgeon” in this circumstance is really just a general doctor. Note that there are two people in the manifest who have specialist medical knowledge: the surgeon, and his mate. Consider who Third Mate is more likely to turn to for a report.
[ID] The other guy in the surgery room
- He’s got some manners with his shoes on the table. (In a doctor’s room, really??) He could be the surgeon(‘s assistant), or just be related to the matter / the deceased in some way.
- His action in II.3 should clarify the matter: Tidying up the surgery’s bed isn’t anyone’s business but the surgeon and his mate.
Now this is the real goldmine of info for this chapter.
Here is where recognising spoken languages comes in handy, but I did say in the intro that it’s not necessary. And indeed it isn’t. (We don’t need to know exactly what languages are spoken, but we will still use the subtitles) But in turn, you need to find an alternative method of deduction. Which you have to find anyway in order to complete the game.
[ID] Syed
- There is one person receiving some care in the scene, and in the audio log he is called Syed.
- Alternative:
- Clue: Check the guy’s hammock.
- Solution: There is a tag on the guy’s hammock that says 54, which happens to be “Syed”‘s index in the crew manifest.
- Rather than an alternative, this is more like giving you a pattern to follow, which is why this part is a goldmine.
- P.S. The language is Hindi.
[FATE] 👤II.1
- If the wheezing and concern from friends isn’t enough of a clue: in II.2, the medical reporter said 👤II.2 had some kind of lung disease, “same as the other guy” (which very likely refers to the wrapped up corpse outside, i.e. 👤II.1), and implied that both 👤II.2 and the “other guy” were at the lascar house and that’s where they got it.
As for the people playing cards (and maybe cheating?) at the table:
- Language: The people gambling are speaking Russian. Check the crew manifest for who can do so, and the number of people fit.
- Alternative: The hammock numbers tell you who is at the table.
Unfortunately, we can’t tell exactly who is who yet. But we at least know that these men come in a group, so remember their faces in the sketch.
Now to milk the alternative method as much as you can:
[ID]x3 Syed’s pals
- First off, note Syed’s origin, and his pals around him are probably the same, especially given the (presumably) common language. (There is one extra crew member from the same origin, but he’s a steward, and the stewards have their own room in the gun deck if you check the deck plans.)
- Read off the numbers of their hammocks. One guy is obvious that way. One guy is out of his hammock because is the one tending to Syed. The last cannot be determined by our method, but we can guess who he is by process of elimination.
Other details:
- Survey the hammocks. The numbers present (aside from the ones we’ve just ID’d): 55, 56, 57, 58. 37, 42. 36. 38, 39, 40, 41, 59.
- While you’re at it, check for any physical features that could help identify some people.
- Note the satchel hanging with a hammock at the Russians.
Chapter II – A Bitter Cold (extras)
If you didn’t figure out the same trick before in VII.2, now you can do so. This is the trick needed to figure out 👤VII.1’s attacker. Hint: Check back to VII.2 to see who’s still alive.
[ID] 👤III.3
- This is a difficult observation, because you have to notice the same thing in two different scenes, to then make the association. Me writing this here should hopefully prompt you to look harder at what you’ve seen so far. (Otherwise, you’ll prompt yourself sooner or later when you’ve seen every scene and have to figure this character out.)
- Mild hint: There are only 2 memories that this character has appeared in so far.
- Mild hint: Some feature of his should be visible in both scenes.
- Major hint: Look at his arm (in his death scene).
The infamous Chinese topmen are also deducible at this point (from II.1 and III.2), but given how difficult they are, I will leave them to the end of this guide.
[FATE]x4 Does the surgeon’s name ring a bell?
- He’s the one who sent you this book in the first place, as signed off in the preface.
- Which means he survived the ordeal on the Obra Dinn. Do you know his fate in the book?
- A quick book search reminds us that he left with the others in a rowboat in Chapter IX. Evidently they found safety. But the book wants to know: where?
- Read the preface again: When you’re done with the book, Henry wants you to send it somewhere. Presumably that’s where he lives now. If you don’t know your geography, use Google.
We are done here, so next chapter time. Head back to the stairs that you came from in the orlop deck, and follow the faint trail of blood(?) behind the purser’s office and into the port walk.
Chapter VI – Soldiers of the Sea
Right before The Doom, this chapter seems to be another murderfest.
Some say this chapter has the best music. The dev probably likes it too, as the melody also features in the main menu theme.
imo 👤VI.7 is one of the hardest people to identify AND to diagnose the cause of death for.
You can investigate this scene now if you want, but since 👤VI.7 has made a trail of blood, I think we can postpone it for a bit.
More useful in this part are the snapshots of the action we can see through the viewports in the port walk.
- At the farthest end, we see Top Hat and Police Man in the gunner’s store.
- In the main area, we see First Mate, Bosun, and two more guys too distant to ID (one is bald, all dressed in white, and is shooting a musket, and the other has a scimitar), fighting some spider thing. (Maybe we can get a better idea of who those guys are in the next scene.)
- Much further right, a guy or maybe two is crouching near a lump that has a sword and a couple spikes sticking out of it.
- Through the next viewport, we see two guys we know, one of them now corpse-ified.
- In the last viewport right before the exit, we see someone hiding in the purser’s office.
Let’s keep these details in mind as we review the next few scenes. This might be another confusing Chapter IX sort of deal.
👤VI.6 is someone we’ve already ID’d.
[FATE] 👤VI.6
- He got spikes sticking out of it. The game automatically tells you that anything that kills by spiking is invariably a “terrible beast”, which sounds plausible enough given that the only enemies around are what we can now see as big spider crabs with a spiky cluster coming out from them.
We also get clarifications for some of the things we’ve seen in the previous scene. Unfortunately, the front of the ship where the other battle is taking place is annoyingly cut off, and the scene is generally uninformative.
We’ve also ID’d 👤VI.5 already.
[FATE] 👤VI.5
- He burnin’.
[FATE]x2 👤VI.4a and 👤VI.4b
- “Clawed” sounds appropriate.
- Alternatively, if you look at the corpses post-mortem, you’ll see that their heads were taken right off.
[FATE] 👤VI.7
- We see 👤VI.7 crawling away with a spike in his back. He’s quite shadowy in this scene, but we can see the same in VI.5 as well, and more clearly.
- What I want to point out with this is that the spike is in his back. (He’s also already pulled it out in VI.6.) But in his death scene, something was coming out of him from the front. So it was something else that killed him.
- In the present world, around his place of death, we see a small hole in the wall around where he stood. Hopefully you now can piece together all the visual clues you have to get a working hypothesis.
- For the final piece of the puzzle: By this scene (VI.4), we can be confident that the only bald guy wearing all white around here is Striped Shirt Man.
[ID] Scimitar guy
- On the gun deck, we finally see who owns the scimitar, which is something we’ve taken note of since Chapter VII.2.
Other details:
- Top Hat is handing out weapons from the gunner’s store.
- Police Man is opening the cover to the cargo deck, the final area of the game. But we shall finish this chapter first.
Finally some interesting dialog.
Language: “En dæmon” is Danish.
We don’t know 👤VI.3’s ID, but he did call someone else “boss”, and it’s clear from the dialog and scene who his boss is. Remember both of them. Let’s call them Axethrow Junior and Axethrow Senior.
Axethrow Junior’s fate is obvious. [FATE]
The only other interesting part of the dialog is “Nick”, and we infer that Nick died recently. (Do a routine check in the manifest.) The only dead bodies in this scene are the two bodies on the main deck, but who knows if there are more dead bodies off-screen and carried over from the preceding chapter.
[FATE] 👤VI.2
- Impaled. “Enemy” doesn’t quite work for some reason, so select “Beast” instead.
👤VI.1’s fate is obvious. [FATE]
Recall from the glossary which quality specifically works in the ship’s rigging. You can label everyone up here as such.
[ID] Nick
- From these two scenes, it seems like Nick will have to be either 👤VI.2 or 👤VI.1.
- To decide which one it is, consider how most of the present crew are in shock at 👤VI.2’s death, whereas no one is really paying attention to 👤VI.1.
- Nick’s origin might also be a hint.
[ID] Russian topman
- Recall that out of the 3 Russians (whom we got the faces for back in II.1), 2 are seamen and 1 is a topman. One of the Russians appear here, which locks in who it is.
6 people pulling the rope down below, which matches the people seen in VI.2. Given that the people we know out of these are seamen, we can assume all of them are.
Also note that Striped Shirt Man is at the front of the rope, directing them. (Well he’s facing them and holding the rope with only one hand, and someone was shouting the orders in the audio log.)
There is one last part to this chapter. The access point is in the cargo bay. After going down the stairs, turn to the left to the door behind you.
It’s Axethrow Senior, and his fate is obvious. [FATE]
For the next chapter, go to the right of the stairs, to the door behind again. There’s a barrel that has attracted flies.
Chapter I – Loose Cargo
Welcome to the shortest chapter of the game, and it is even more uninformative than it is short.
As the book tells you, the one that died is a stowaway. Basically, there’s someone hiding in the barrel, who is not part of the crew, and died when the barrel hit the floor hard. No one ever noticed, and the barrel with the corpse inside was stashed in the cargo hold like any other cargo.
It may mildly help us to label anyone who is handling cargo as a seaman. (Maybe topmen and stewards would help out as well? Or maybe they have their own duties to worry about, like rigging the sails and accompanying their masters respectively. And the stewards don’t look like they’re dressed for heavy lifting anyway.)
What? This is the exact same scene! I feel cheated.
So someone died, in an obvious way. [FATE]
Not so obvious is his ID, but what is obvious is that this is going to be the only scene we see him in, so there really isn’t much info to be had.
[ID] 👤I.1
- How did that crate get below him, when the cargo is coming from above? He was probably carrying it. Which makes him a seaman.
- We can rule out anyone appearing in II.1 as being him. That leaves only 2 choices: #50 (John Naples, Welsh seaman) and #60 (Samuel Peters, English seaman).
- Perhaps we can wait for more info at this point; maybe some of the choices will be ruled out later, and then we can come back. Meanwhile, the next few points are additional “soft” hints:
- We have no clue who John Naples is, but we did have a previous consideration about Samuel Peters. Remember VII.1?
- We learnt some things about Samuel Peters in VII.1: (i) His brother, Nathan, thinks Lars killed him; (ii) it could’ve been construed as an accident instead; and (iii) it happened a fair while ago (for Nathan to have “waited so long”). (ii) and (iii) clearly fit I.1. For (i), we see Lars on the orlop deck above, pretty close to the cargo and looking down at it, so maybe possibly he could be construed to have caused it (perhaps indirectly) in some implied way? The book says Nathan is present, but I don’t see him.
- Personally, the confirmatory nudge for me is that we know who Nathan is in the sketch, and his body language is showing particular closeness to one person: he’s putting his elbow on 👤I.1’s back, leaning in, and pointing something out to him.
For the next chapter, we head to the other end of the cargo deck, to find a skelly leg hidden behind the stairs.
Chapter V – Unholy Captives
I was pretty confused by this scene in my first playthrough. You should examine the actors in the scene and do your best to figure out who’s saying what.
- There are two main subjects of attention. The first one is 👤V.4, who is incapacitated on the floor, with several people tending to him.
- The second one is the guy being hauled away, by Striped Shirt Man. The captain and First Mate are looking on disapprovingly. Bosun is coming out of the bosun’s store with some rope.
- The audio log has several identifying clues. One is “John”. One is that a steward is present. One is that someone said a foreign language.
Language: “Era dårar!” is Swedish. This is incredibly identifying if you know it, but we will take the more difficult route once again.
[ID] The steward
- To identify him in the scene, remember that he’s the one who went “mad” / whose “sanity” is finally being doubted. I think there are two possible candidates: the one who died (maybe he tried to commit suicide), and the one being hauled away (he probably bit someone’s leg off like a rabid animal). Note that the madman replied in the audio log, whereas the one who died has no speaking lines.
- As for his exact name: Soft hint: The steward belongs to someone who seems to be calling the shots. Who is the most senior officer in the scene? Surely he would be directly taking charge of a situation as grave as this, instead of leaving it to a subordinate.
- Hard hint: There are 2 commanders in the main scene. (3 if you count the bosun, but he doesn’t have a steward.) We know the steward of one of them already, so the steward in this scene is the other one.
[ID] John
- Routine check on the manifest. There are two Johns this time.
- I personally find it very hard to tell what role John has from the audio log. But if you can tell, that is very helpful.
- Knowing that John is someone close by, and knowing who’s already been ID’d (very important; you might want to leave this for later when you’ve narrowed the options more, but I will not revisit this at the end of this guide), consider everyone present for who can possibly be named John.
- You should be especially discerning towards everyone’s attire.
- We’ve ID’d all the officers already so John the Officer is not here, it’s the other John. We’ve seen by now that the seamen/topmen, as part of the working class, wear ragged clothes meant for hard labour.
Well, what do you know, only one option remains for 👤I.1 now. (ID)
[FATE] 👤V.4
- You may have to look around a bit, but this isn’t too difficult.
- His leg is missing, as the audio log hints. He’s bleeding out because of it. How did it come off?
- There’s a sword on the ground not far from him, splashed with blood.
- Guess who did it.
Other details:
- The orlop deck is accessible, where the next corpse is found. His friend is checking up on him, and Axethrow Junior and Senior are bringing a stretcher.
- Also on the orlop deck, Police Man is stopping two people whom we already know from satisfying their curiosity.
- Also, 3 people whom we’ve already identified as seamen are carrying the artifact down the stairs, being directed by Third Mate.
Not much happening here compared to the last scene, but there is an important detail nonetheless.
[FATE] 👤V.3
- Pretty obvious, but maybe hard to describe. The book accepts several alternatives.
[ID]x2 Axethrow Junior and Senior
- Can you find where they are in the scene?
- They’re behind the stairs, with Senior peeking out of the room. Figured them out yet?
- The room is the carpenter’s shop, and Junior is doing some carpenting.
Other details:
- We see that 👤V.4 is one of the men who is carrying something down the stairs. That extra context might help you if you haven’t figured him out yet.
More details again, as two decks are available, but relatively normal and uninformative things are going on for the most part. It might help to reinforce who’s part of the working class.
[ID] 👤V.2
- His ID is pretty clear if you check the audio log. There’s only one guy on the list whose job would be to “fry the boys a solid meal”.
[FATE] 👤V.2
- Imagine getting smacked so hard you died. But anyway, the thing being carried is clearly alive and kicking up a storm. There are several acceptable options. If you choose “struck”, you’ll have to further consider what part of a beast you’re seeing, but the most likely option should be clear.
Other details:
- The madman in V.4 can be seen running off in the gun deck, near the scene exit.
[FATE] 👤V.1a and 👤V.1b
- 👤V.1b is restraining 👤V.1a for interrogation. 👤V.1a died in a pretty obvious way. Given that 👤V.1b died too and blood is spurting out from his back, we can figure that the spike penetrated through.
You’d think that the whole crew would take much more precautions with this weird sea thing after these lethal kills and near-misses of some important people even when the thing is netted. But nooooo, leave it alive and put 4 men in close proximity while carrying it down the stairs, while you continue to mull things over on the top deck. Kinda the captain’s fault, you know?
👤V.1a is pretty identifiable as a person, but what we need is his name, which will probably be obvious when it comes and not much we can do about it otherwise.
[ID] 👤V.1b
- If you’ve been diligent in your observations up to this point, you’ll know what quality this guy is, and have ID’d enough people to narrow down the options, such that his appearance will bring it home. If not, you can always try to deduce more people first, and consider whether there are any possible alternatives for the candidate name(s) for this guy in the manifest.
The next corpse in the scene leads us to the next and final chapter. Have you been paying attention to the story? You’ve been paying attention to the deaths at least – This last chapter is the transition point for when the sporadic unlucky deaths stop and the real murderfest from sea creatures begins. Maybe the chapter title has something to do with it. Oooooh, mystery~.
Chapter IV – The Calling
Ooh la la, we see some interesting stuff in the boats.
👤IV.6 is someone we’ve already ID’d (and probably don’t like, story-wise, if you recall Chapter III).
[FATE] 👤IV.6
- Shot by 👤V.1a, obviously.
If you haven’t figured out who the guy in the other window is yet back in III.1, consider which room he’s in. He’s on the gun deck, and the footprints on the deck plans tell you which window he’s at. You can also count the windows, but I don’t like how the end of the ship is unclear.
Other details:
- There’s someone on the top deck as well, but he’s too far away to ID clearly.
[FATE] 👤IV.5
- Kinda hard to tell as there’s magic/fire involved, but you can look at his corpse to figure out that the magic fire is not in fact good for him.
[ID] Formosan woman
- 👤IV.5 calls her out by (partial) name. (Actually, that’s the subtitles doing their own thing. The original speech did not use any name at all.)
This is actually a good time to check on the bodies, and we can probably tell how they all died… except you’re dragged directly to Part 3 when you close the book. Come back when you’re able to.
[FATE] 👤IV.4
- Given that nothing’s actively attacking her, she seems to have died from bleeding out.
- She got some nasty gashes on her face, so we can probably go with that.
Nichols is hiding like the bloody coward he is.
“O’Hagan” is someone around these parts.
[FATE] 👤IV.3
- He got bodied by the old man. But a little more is going on here.
- In Part 4, you see a knife sticking out of his neck.
[ID] Formosan old man
- The woman calls him out by name.
[ID] 👤V.1a
- Only one option left. Remember to fill in 👤IV.6’s fate.
“SHU JIA!! MAI KIRAI!!!”
[FATE] 👤IV.2
- Pretty obvious. Remember to select “beast” instead of “enemy”.
[FATE] 👤IV.1
- Obvious again.
We can take proper stock of who’s present. 2 boats, 4 people on each.
[ID] O’Hagan
- Routine manifest check.
- We know the IDs of most of the people here. After factoring in origin (remember we’ve already ID’s the Russians, even if we don’t know who’s who exactly), there’s only one choice left.
[FATE] 👤IV.D1
- Last seen in Part 3, where something is pulling his right arm into the water.
[FATE] 👤IV.D2
- Last seen in Part 2, where he’s being pulled overboard.
When this chapter wraps up, the seaman in the present timeline calls for you. That is the signal that you’ve seen every memory already. But don’t go yet, as we have a book to finish.
Final Deductions
We bring together everything we’ve seen to deal with the final, most difficult cases.
You should have all fates filled in by now, and it’s just the IDs left.
[ID] 👤VI.7
- You can see his physical appearance the most clearly in V.2, where is is holding up a lantern at the stairs on the gun deck.
- Consider his attire, which should narrow down options a lot.
- His general appearance may also help determine what his origin is or is not.
- He has a steward’s attire, and all other stewards (except perhaps the captain’s steward) have been ID’d by this point. We are pretty confident of the other steward’s ID from V.4.
[ID]x3 The Chinese topmen
- Ahhh, the infamous Chinese topmen. We are fortunate to have one of them ID’d back in VII.2.. For the other 3, it’s possible to differentiate them by the actions they took, but what we need is their names. And since their names do not appear anywhere as we have seen, there’s only one way left that we can associate their names to them.
- That way is to look for any discerning features whatsoever in II.1.
- The only thing you can see is their shoes, so take notes: 38 – black shoes with white socks, 39 – white shoes with black socks, 40 – covered shoes.
- After that, hunt for them in other scenes. Tip: 2 (out of 3) of them appear in III.2. 2 appear in VI.1.
[ID]x2 The Russian seamen
- You can deal with them similarly to the Chinese topmen: look for any discerning features whatsoever in II.1… except since they’re out of their hammocks, there is another feature apart from their shoes that you can associate to them.
- 47 has a bag with a smoking pipe.
- Once you’ve found your distinguishing feature, head over to IV.1 or something to identify them.
[ID] 👤VII.7
- Maybe this guy was obvious to you at some point, but in case he wasn’t: Remember from VI.1 that he’s a topman. We only have 2 choices left here, and 1 of them doesn’t fit his appearance.
[ID] 👤X.3
- Bald Tarzan… remember him? We’ve also confirmed his role, and there’s only one option left now.
[ID] 👤VII.D4
- He appears in only 6 scenes. The first is uninformative, but the next 3 are pretty suggestive. The 5th scene reinforces the theory since he’s bringing along papers and scrolls that look like the ones from the purser’s office.
[ID] 👤VII.D6
- This guy appears for all of 2 scenes: III.2, and VII.8. And the Justice at Sea sketch. In each case, he’s always found very close to the ship’s wheel. Gotta wonder where he even is most of the time.
[ID] Police Man
- With the above out of the way, there’s only one choice left for a classy-looking guy like him.
- You may or may not have picked up other clues about him too, but I personally feel that he appears in a ton of scenes, and hardly any of his appearances are decisive. (Kinda like the bosun’s mate.) The best soft hints I find are that he’s with the gunner at the gunner’s store in VII.7, and he’s generally seen with the gunner. Maybe you could’ve started the other way around, asking who’s most likely to be the gunner’s mate, by following the gunner around.
- Remember to fill in the fate for 👤IX.6.
Only 2 people left: Alexander Booth (57) and George Shirley (59), both English seamen who died around the same time (Chapter VII). [ID]x2
- First of all, recall which two physical bodies they correspond to, and what they were doing during the last moments. One of them tried to leave on a boat and was capsized. The other was (nearly?) blasted by a cannon.
- Perhaps the scene to pick apart is VII.2, which would once again be the only way to translate their names into some kind of physical difference.
- In that scene, we see that hammock 57 is empty, as are 36, 48 and 49. 36 (Omid Gul) is at the top deck surveying the sea, whereas 48 (Nathan Peters) and 49 (Lars Linde) had their little scuffle in VII.1. The implication is that since one of the last men is on the boat with 48, their hammock would be in the same state as well.
- Meanwhile, while you were checking up on the Chinese topmen, you may have noticed that their lil corner of the orlop deck had an extra hammock, with a number that was pretty out of place. From this, you might infer that George Shirley (59) is pretty chummy with the Chinese, and thus the partially hung hammock next to the two men drinking in VII.2 would be Shirley’s. I think this is the most definitive hint that we’ll get.
- Perhaps one last hint is that #59’s legs can be seen in II.1, and they are white. Meanwhile, one of the men is noticeably darker-skinned than the other. Unfortunately, both men wear covered black shoes.
And there you have it… all cases filled. Enjoy the epilogue.